Chapter 30
A Whole New World
The system had discovered why gamers like me were the bane of every gaming company in existence. Once we understood the mechanics we were working with, every obstacle became a speed bump on our road to success. Each new discovery was like a nail in the coffin. Each confirmation provided me with another piece of the puzzle, allowing me to imagine what the empty spaces between were supposed to look like, until it all came together into a beautiful tapestry of discovery.
In the past few hours, I'd made seventy-three minor branch lore discoveries, opened up another nine additional branches of lore, and made eighteen main branch discoveries. This was on top of my initial discoveries, which pointed me in the right direction.
Farms were giant intergalactic sacrificial altars that generated mana, and the farmer class was some sort of soo-doh priest class, which was better at generating mana than other classes. Those two discoveries changed everything I knew about the system. They perfectly explained why I'd gained so many experience crystals when I killed the king toad.
I was just doing what the system wanted me to do.
As I walked beside the king toad's carcass through the fading daylight, thousands of butchers crawled over the body, carving away massive slabs of meat. The meat had the colour and texture of tuna, with a mild, pleasant, meaty aroma. Tens of thousands of farmers were loading the massive slabs of meat onto wagons for transport to processing facilities. In other places, low-level warriors were carving away blubber for commercial use. Merchants were collecting the blubber with massive grins, intending to process it into usable goods.
Everyone was laughing despite the hard work, excited for the bounty that had landed on their doorstep. Out in the wilds, the majority of the carcass would go to waste, sold off to the system for cents on the dollar, because they couldn't transport it back to use before it spoiled. Unprocessed meat was barely worth anything to the system. You received a fraction of what it was worth when you sold it that way, which is why there were so many happy faces.
The other reason was security.
Usually, the butchers were surrounded by soldiers who kept the local monsters at bay while they processed the meat and blubber, so the merchants could sell it at a higher premium. It was a dangerous industrial effort that involved large sections of the population rushing through the wilderness to reach it as quickly as possible. However, the meat would always go bad long before their work was even slightly done.
That might not happen here.
Torvac saw me approach the ring of guards protecting the experience crystals and told to let me through. The guards gave me a respectful nod as I passed through their lines, before closing ranks. Only one farmer with their interface set to automatically absorb experience needed to get through to spell disaster. A nosedive into one of the piles would eat into everyone's profits.
Torvac smiled as I walked up and then looked at my hand. "Torvac surprised Friend Arnold remember."
I ran my hand through my hair and gave an embarrassed chuckle. "I've been ruminating on these questions for months. I'm not going to forget to put my ring back on. Isabelle would kill me."
Torvac raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying my claim.
"Blackwood missed one discovery. Only one."
"Friend Arnold do much better than Torvac think." Torvac then threw his head back and laughed.
Durg'un walked over and cleared his throat. "We've organised the experience into two piles. With your permission, I will convert our share into gold."
I had seen they were waiting for me when I walked up, so I nodded. "Go ahead."
Durg'un walked over to the largest pile with a noticeable amount of swagger in his step. He waved his hand, and the massive pile of experience crystals was converted to gold in a flash of light. The water the crystals displaced didn't have a chance to rush back in as they instantly transformed into gold bars. It wasn't a swapping of one material for another like I thought in the past, but a transformation of mana from one state to another.
It made perfect sense.
What didn't make perfect sense was why only dwarves were allowed to sell human experience to the system. This realisation gave me several new ideas, but before I could start articulating those ideas to the system, Torvac leaned over and whispered, "Torvac concerned that Chief Durg'un knew Friend's Arnold champion ability."
Torvac's concern reminded me that this was neither the time nor the place to begin making more discoveries. "Give me a few weeks and then I'll tell you how he knew. There are things I can't talk about right now."
Torvac didn't take offence. "Torvac understand."
Durg'un pulled out his bank purse, and the massive pile of gold bars began to pour inside like it was being sucked up by a jet engine. It was enough wealth to establish a kingdom and likely see it flourish. Durg'un's stupefied look when it appeared told me it was beyond his wildest expectations.
I glanced at Torvac as we began walking towards Durg'un. "Was this the most experience you've ever seen from a kill?"
Torvac laughed. "Yes, Friend Arnold. This most."
I grinned at his confirmation. "Then I've got you beat on most experience from a single kill."
Torvac stopped laughing and squinted at me. "Farmer experience no count."
"Says who?"
"Torvac."
"This was gained in battle. How does that not count?"
"Ahhh."
While Torvac was looking for a way to justify not having to admit I'd gained more experience than him, Winslow pushed his way through the line of guards and rushed over to Durg'un. "Lunar wishes to know if you are free to dine with her this evening?"
Durg'un attached his bank purse to his belt and patted it with an unrepentant grin, before turning to Winslow. "It would complicate matters if I were to remain here during the founding, so I intend to leave her kingdom before sunset. Please apologise to Lunar on my behalf and inform her that I am willing to visit at her next convenience."
Winslow smiled. "I will pass along your words."
Durg'un turned to me. "The next part of our plan will take place in ten days. There is a teleportation circle to Radian in eight. Make sure you use it."
I rolled my eyes.
Durg'un noticed and turned to Torvac. "Don't let him get distracted by the insanity I saw all afternoon."
"Torvac try. Torvac not sure if succeed. Friend Arnold get distracted easy."
Durg'un gave Torvac a calculating look and then sighed. He straightened his back, giving the much taller adventurer a hard stare. "How much?"
Torvac grinned and held up two fingers.
"Small kegs?"
"Torvac share one with Durg'un and Friend Arnold to celebrate something that Torvac know nothing about."
Torvac had obviously pieced together what Durg'un was trying to do.
"Fine. Two large kegs of deep honey mead."
"Friend Arnold be in Radian in eight days. Torvac sure of this."
Torvac enjoyed Ririon's sour mushroom stout, but Ririon actually produced a mead which he enjoyed more. Orlana had once managed to purchase a keg at auction for her restaurant, only for Torvac to sample and then subsequently drink the entire barrel over the next month. Torvac had been trying to acquire a barrel ever since to make up for the one he drank.
I didn't mind being used as a bargaining chip, especially if I gained access to Ririon's mead.
The two shook hands, and then Durg'un rose into the air and began flying towards the ocean. Flying was faster than waiting for the teleportation circle, and Durg'un needed to act quickly for Ririon to stay ahead of the other dwarven kings.
I glanced at Winslow. "Any invitations for me?"
Winslow scoffed. "Maybe if you had kept that ring off."
I hitched my thumb over my shoulder, pointing to the king toad's carcass.
Winslow wasn't impressed. "Lunar's people will deliver your promotion crystals when you get back to where you are staying."
"I get no respect."
"This good, Friend Arnold. Means Lunar respect Radian's king."
I raised an eyebrow. "Not inviting me to dinner is a sign of respect?"
"Not to Friend Arnold, but to Radian."
Winslow discreetly began waving over the guards, trying to place them between me and the remaining experience crystals.
Torvac laughed.
I gave Winslow a level look. "Okay, now that was intentional insulting."
Winslow made a shooing motion, which made Torvac laugh even harder.
***
Seven days later, I sat alone in my suite sipping scotch and thinking about everything I'd done in that time. Convincing Irana to take an oath that prevented her from sharing anything we discussed or using it in any way that might help her or others for three years had been surprisingly simple. All I had to do was dangle the answer to whether experience was real in front of her, and she raced off to find an oath binder. Not having to be vague with my questions had helped me expand my understanding by leaps and bounds.
Farms obviously bought magic into the system. Everyone knew this, but they didn't know it was done through blood magic. Blood magic was a type of magic that wizards didn't practice, only study academically. Not because it required sacrificing a living creature to work, but because it provided no experience and drained yours when you practised it.
As far as the wizards could tell, it was the most powerful form of magic. Even a small sacrifice like a level 1 quilled fox or horned rabbit generated massive amounts of raw magic at the moment of death, so much so that the practitioner couldn't hope to capture more than 1% and convert it to mana, even with extensive preparation. And that 1% was more mana than I had access to.
This wasn't some unique by-product of a specially prepared ritual either. The wizard academy's research on the subject was extensive, and they knew it occurred anytime something with a level died, and sometimes even when they didn't have levels.
So where was all that raw magic going?
It was flowing through the world around us, only to be collected by farms and absorbed into the system. As far as I could tell, the closer the monster died to the farm, the better the conversion from raw magic to mana was, and there was nothing closer than directly over it. That's why my traps system generated so much experience. The proximity to the deaths meant the system could easily capture all the raw mana generated by the death.
It was only a theory, but I was certain it was right.
The more I studied, the more I learned, but also the more questions I had.
I had a theory that wild dungeons were like farms. They existed to absorb the raw magic that occurred where creatures died far from civilisation. They also created monsters, helped them grow and level up like a civilisation would, and then released them into the world, where they could fight each other and create more magic. Everywhere I looked, I saw connections, pieces of information that didn't make sense unless you understood that the underlying assumptions were wrong.
I'd thought the orc system was built on war. I now thought it had something to do with the way monsters and beasts could lie next to their kill and absorb its experience. It was why orcs could level when their allies died. And it was a piece I didn't fully understand, because I couldn't grasp the importance of why they would need to be able to do so.
The dwarf system was easier. It wasn't a system about crafting. It was about investing magic into inanimate objects, something that rarely occurred naturally. This investment altered items in some fundamental way, which likely caused them to generate more mana either over time or when they were destroyed.
What did knowing all this mean? I wasn't sure yet, but I knew I was on the right track, because now when I made guesses about how something in the system worked, I was mostly right.
I'd made over one hundred discoveries since returning to the Lunar's capital and beginning my work with Irana, expanding areas of lore that no one but me understood, but those discoveries had slowed and then stopped yesterday.
I had a feeling I was reaching the limit of where my knowledge could take me. My understanding of this world wasn't grounded enough. It wasn't as extensive as it needed to be for me to tackle what I was trying to tackle. Without the advantages my life before coming to Radian offered me, I would not have been able to make all these connections.
However, I couldn't form connections without starting points to work from, and it was abundantly clear to me that I was running out of them. All the low-hanging fruit had been picked. The rest were sitting up at the top of the trees, waiting for me to start climbing or find a ladder.
A rhythmic knock came for the door. Torvac was still out hunting king toads, hoping to help bring one down before we left, so I was all by myself. Even if the knock hadn't been the old shave and a haircut, I wouldn't have been concerned. Every Newspaper in Lunar was talking about what I'd done, so no one was coming after me for my champion mark anymore.
"It's open," I said, not bothering to get up.
Irana opened the door, wearing a scowl. She marched into the room, kicked the door closed, and swiped the bottle of scotch off the table before taking a swig. "She rejected my request."
Irana had offered to follow me to Blackwood to act as an advisor, but she needed Lunar's permission to do so. She was one of her best advisors, so the chances she would say yes had always been low.
"Why do you sound annoyed?"
"I was hoping she would see the bigger picture."
"She probably does."
Irana took another swig and flopped into the empty armchair. "Why don't I like that look in your eye? What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing except letting you do what you wanted."
Irana began to frown and then groaned. "Lunar is going to contact your king and tell him to provide you with all the assistance you need in Radian."
I certainly hoped so.
"This way, she doesn't lose a valuable advisor, and humanity gains the most it can out of me. Just so we're clear, I would have preferred to work with you."
"Of course you would. You've made more discoveries with me in the past week than humanity has made in the past three decades."
Irana was clearly upset, so I tried steering the conversation in another direction. I wanted to get the most out of our last night together. I didn't know who would replace her, but I doubted they would be as competent. "Does it concern you that the system uses our deaths to grow?"
Irana flashed me a scowl. "The system has never shown any inclination to accelerate our deaths, so why should I care if it benefits from our eventual demise?"
"I have to disagree with your assessment. Your world and the one I came from are geographically identical. However, your world is the only one with monsters. This threat was introduced by the system."
Irana paused and then sighed. "You're right. And it annoys me that you are, because it means I'm too caught up in the old way of thinking to assist you properly."
"You've had your entire understanding of the system turned on its head over the past seven days. You're allowed some time to adapt"
Irana scoffed. "This might be a new way of looking at the system, but it is far from turning it on its head."
This was news to me. "Are you sure about that?"
"Your understanding of our world is clearly limited. While our discussions have been groundbreaking in some areas, they haven't touched on most of what we already understand. Will these new branches of lore lead to more discoveries? Obviously, but that doesn't mean you've turned our understanding on its head. You've just removed a cornerstone and left the building shaking on its foundation, which I would have helped correct if Lunar had let me."
Irana took another swig.
Clearly, this was not going to be a fond farewell.
I leaned forward and gestured for the bottle. Misery loved company, and I owed Irana enough to wallow with her instead of trying to grasp a final discovery. She slapped the bottle in my hand, and we spent the rest of our time together drinking away her problems.